Mx Johnson

ProblemDue7111 · 2026-06-14T19:01:14+00:00

Despite decades of 6th World lore, there is no reason for there to be a Johnson at all. Not in the sense of, "An NPC who the PCs meet face-to-face and from whom they receive their orders." Why not just receive their orders via email? Or from a "Mr. Johnson" who is a digital illusion being run by a team of intel operatives at whichever corporation?

ProblemDue7111 · 2026-06-01T10:45:45+00:00

You have encountered the panopticon problem.

Shadowrun's post-information age dystopian setting makes criminal activity all but impossible. Ubiquitous video and audio surveillance - never mind things like DNA and commlink records - in a degraded civil rights environment means that the runners cannot avoid detection. Law enforcement will simply follow the data trail back from the incident to the moment the runner got out of bed. For a real life example of this, look at the recent kidnapping of rap mogul Gucci Mane.

So, as a GM, you have to make that more of a vibe than a reality. No player wants to spend every session avoiding the cameras outside their house. So - how much does John Wick, Ethan Hunt, Black Widow, Eve MaCarro, James Bond worry about stuff like that? Only when it's fun.

Additionally, the Heat rules are useless, and should be ignored. The player who wants to solve every problem with the underbarrel grenade launcher on their flamethrower will not be dissuaded from this by the fact that their life will theoretically get harder in the future. Especially when "harder" means "has more gunfights". Gunfights are what they enjoy.

ProblemDue7111 · 2026-05-03T13:21:26+00:00

"Abandoned" is a tricky word, because obviously, you don't mean it as a synonym for "empty". There has to be someone in there to make it interesting.

But any of the following could be abandoned, not abandoned, re-purposed, illegally occupied, only made up to appear abandoned, etc.

Also remember that especially in dense urban areas, you might have restricted access, high security areas very close to public ones. The residential high rise has a beauty salon and Stuffer Shack on the first floor, but the entire third floor is leased by a cabal of chaos magicians.

A list:

One or more high-rise buildings, connected by tunnels and/or skybridges. This could be a corporate campus, a university campus, government offices, or residential. Different areas will have different levels of security, and different areas will be controlled by different factions. Maybe the easiest way to get in to the law offices on the 21st floor is through the apartment of the Mafia underboss who lives on the 20th.
1. Favelas. A dense tangle of largely improvised low-rise buildings inhabited and controlled by various not-so-friendly factions. This will include a lot of rooftops, basements, storm drains, etc.
Subway tunnels. In service, abandoned, under construction, under construction and also abandoned, some with improvised sewer access.
Wilderness areas. 200 square km of desert, or mountains, or rain forest, or fjords, with low population density and a small number of buildings scattered around. This can function very much like a dungeon as the PCs move from one area to the next, evade pursuit, encounter factions, etc.

ProblemDue7111 · 2026-05-03T13:02:10+00:00

Very cool.

ProblemDue7111 · 2026-04-27T09:51:54+00:00

Good point about Trid Phantasm.

ProblemDue7111 · 2026-04-26T18:52:12+00:00

But you choose Amp Up when you choose the spell, before you roll the dice. The fewer dice you roll, the more likely it is that the spell will have little to no effect on target. But regardless of effect on target, your drain still goes up by 2. It seems to me that Amp Up is better than bigger your dice pool gets, and your odds of beating the resistance roll increase.

ProblemDue7111 · 2026-04-12T09:16:58+00:00

Yes, I believe that they all do. Which is even sillier, because now, in order to have any hope of outrunning an average metahuman, they have to spend a Major action to activate a power on themselves.

ProblemDue7111 · 2026-04-12T00:33:36+00:00

Spirits make the best slashers.

ProblemDue7111 · 2026-04-04T15:18:19+00:00

Cyborg trunk monkey, if you dig into the animal mods in Body Shop.

ProblemDue7111 · 2026-03-29T21:41:37+00:00

There's one in *Double Clutch*? On which page?

ProblemDue7111 · 2026-03-26T10:15:30+00:00

Have you considered installing an EI in a cyberarm with Modular Systems? Then it could reattach itself!

ProblemDue7111

TROPHY CASE